Blackhawks Blow 3-Goal Lead in 6-5 Loss to St. Louis

The Chicago Blackhawks coughed up a three-goal lead and lost in a 6-5 slugfest with the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night.

All five Blackhawks goals came in the first period, but it wasn’t enough as Vladimir Tarasenko scored in overtime to give the Blues the second point in this matchup of Central Division rivals.

It didn’t take long for the Blackhawks to pick up right where they’d left off in their previous game, and their offense got on the board early. Ryan Hartman made a nice play along the boards to knock the puck away from Carl Gunnarsson, and Marko Dano was the beneficiary as he fired a one-timer past Brian Elliott to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead.

The Blues answered right back to tie things up just a few moments later. Defenseman Colton Parayko fired a shot in toward the net and it took a funny hop off of Alexander Steen’s knee and fluttered past Corey Crawford to make it a 1-1 game.

Yet again, the Blackhawks responded. Andrew Shaw was tied up by Parayko on a breakaway, and the officials awarded the winger a penalty shot. As he skated down the ice, Shaw picked a corner, unleashed a quick wrist shot and beat Elliott to the stick side to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 edge.

Not content to sit on their lead, the Blackhawks scored once again. Patrick Kane made a good play along the boards to push the puck to Trevor Daley, and the defenseman blasted a shot toward the net. Elliott was unable to hold onto it, and Teuvo Teravainen was there to scoop the rebound into the cage for a 3-1 Chicago lead.

Later in the period, the Blues started to reel the Blackhawks in just a little bit. Robby Fabbri took advantage of some poor positioning by Eric Gustafsson, and he ripped a shot past Crawford on the rush to cut Chicago’s lead to 3-2.

Not surprisingly, the Blackhawks answered yet again as their productive first period continued. Kane carried the puck along the blue line before dropping off a backhanded pass to Brent Seabrook at the point, and the defenseman hammered a slap shot into the top left corner of the net to make it a 4-2 game.

Just for good measure, the Blackhawks scored yet another goal to finish off the period. On a power play face-off, Shaw won the draw, and Kane ripped a wrist shot past Jake Allen to give the Blackhawks a 5-2 lead after 20 wild minutes of play.

In the early portion of the second period, the Blues began to chip away at the Blackhawks’ lead yet again. Parayko picked up his second assist of the night as he fired a low slap shot toward the net. Crawford was able to get his leg pad on it, but the puck ended up ricocheting off of Steen’s skate and into the cage to make it a 5-3 game.

The action seemed to settle down just a little bit as the period wore on, but the Blues struck again late to get to within a goal. Troy Brouwer got the puck in the middle of the ice, and after his initial shot was blocked, he made a quick pass to Jake Bouwmeester, who slid a shot under Crawford’s leg pad.

With 30 seconds left in the period, the Blackhawks gave up yet another goal to finish coughing up a three-goal advantage. Crawford was slow to kick across the netmouth after a Blues shot bounced off the boards, and David Backes calmly collected the puck and fired a shot inside the near post to tie things up at 5-5 after two periods.

The Blackhawks got back-to-back power plays in the third period as Steen was sent to the box twice, but they were unable to score on either advantage. Trevor Daley had a decent shot on the rush during the first power play, and Kane ripped a one-timer on net during the second, but Allen was able to deny both opportunities to keep the game tied.

In the overtime period, both teams got scoring opportunities, but it was St. Louis that came out on top. After Alex Pietrangelo had a shot stopped in front, he slid the puck over to Tarasenko, who beat Crawford on the glove side to give the Blues a 6-5 victory.

The Blackhawks will hit the road on Friday night when they take on the New Jersey Devils in Newark.  

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